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DIARY OF A WOMAN

By Aeby SIMON

Drama - Completed 2024

Confronted with his early childhood teacher Alex Darkley ventures into a transformative, psychological metamorphosis of sexual ambiguity.

- Year of production
- 2024
- Genres
- Drama, Romance
- Countries
- SWITZERLAND
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 88 mn
- Director(s)
- Aeby SIMON
- Cast
- Marcel SCHNEIDER, Florence MATOUSEK, Olga DINNIKOVA
- ISAN
- 0000-0007-21BE-0000-3-0000-0000-S
- Producer(s)
- Remo MUGGLI (CARMO-ONE PRODUCTIONS GMBH)
- Synopsis
- Due to the treatment of his mother’s mental illness in a geriatric ward, Alex Darkley is forced to take a leave from his work as a school teacher in a small rural village, in order clean out her apartment in the city.
  He temporarily moves to the gloomy flat he grew up in as a child. At first, Alex is indifferent to the familiar surroundings, but instead of starting to pack up, he seems more interested in exploring the traces and remains of his early youth: In the attic he watches old black and white family movies and discovers his long forgotten favorite childhood toy: a transgender male Barbie doll with long, blond hair, wearing a miniature neckless and handmade copy of her mother’s red dress.
  Unable to find rest and mental peace in his childhood bed, Alex is haunted by disturbing nightmares. He relives the traumatic moment as a 3 years old boy roaming the empty apartment, barefoot, looking for his absent mom. Way past midnight he puts on his jogging shoes and dashes out into the night, across the empty city streets towards to the neon-lit rails and loading docks of the harbor district, the part of the city that never sleeps.
  Alex visits his mother in the geriatric ward of the hospital, but she just stares at him with an empty gaze, not recognizing her own son. Back at the apartment his early childhood memories and reality no longer seem to add up. In order to sort things out and clearing his mind, Alex starts writing a diary.
  Now it is the adult Alex Darkley roaming the apartment in the middle of the night. He invades his mother’s sanctuary, her bedroom, in order to find missing clues of her absence during so many nights. But where did she go all those nights? Alex knew she wanted to be an actress, her favorite game was to make herself pretty. But he was too young to realize that he wasn’t her only audience. The up-close camera invades every drawer and cabinet, explores the dressing table, perfume bottles, brushes and combs, caresses her honey-blond wig. Opening her wardrobe Alex finally pulls out a silky red dress - finally an answer to all his questions and inquiries?
  After many nights without sleep, Alex has to force himself to eat and staying alert. He starts a photographic diary and analysis of his daily food. But his mental state can’t be so easily controlled: Days are fading into nights and the soundtrack of the relentlessly ticking clock follow the tortured soul wherever he goes.
  One night Alex strips naked in front of the mirror, shaves every hair from his body, slips into his mother’s red dress, put on her honey blond wig, high heels and steps out into the cold, neon-lit night.